Mystery Animal - Armchair help needed

[espringers]

We've had fox in the past. They just got too comfortable last year and started stealing birds from the yard in broad daylight while we were outside. So, I thought I dealt with the problem. Haven't seen or heard one for about 9 months. Last night we had something outside and the dogs ended up tangling with it. I wasn't home before they got into their fight. But, they came home uninjured. The wife did manage to get a recording of it making its strange noise before the dogs went outside. I've heard a fox bark/shriek many times. This did not sound the same. This morning I heard it briefly myself before going to work and didn't have time to investigate. Its not like any fox I've heard before. But, sort of similar in pitch. Just shorter duration. Anyways... the dogs tangled with it again today about 1 PM according to the wife. And she says they came home real stinky. But, she says its not a skunk and I would think even she would know the distinct odor of a skunk. Not many options really where we live... fox, young yote maybe, coon, shunk...

Thoughts? I am sure I will figure it out tonight. But, might as well hear it from the armchair biologists while i kill some time at work.

 

[Rut2much]

My money's on a mink which stink worse than skunk.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...how-to-protect-your-chickens-from-mink.47674/
Not fun to find in the muskrat trap.

Another good real life experience talk forum chat:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/weasel.1125794/

 

[Captain Ahab]

Fisher?

 

[guywhofishes]

we would get these at night the last few years in the summer

really creepy until one figures out it's just a fox



that's right... just a fox... nothing to be creeped out about - just go back to sleep

yeesh

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I suspect that thing is dead if two dogs (hunting?) teamed up on it and made contact

 

[espringers]

i just googled sounds a skunk makes. it sure sounds a lot like what i heard. wife doesn't seem to think that's the smell though. but, she says you could definitely smell it in the air. and, it doesn't sound like the dogs were sprayed. so, it either wasn't a skunk or they didn't actually get in a physical fight with it. maybe just a confrontation. she isn't the best investigator and certainly not good at verbalizing said investigation so far.

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yeah. could have been a fox. but, we've heard that sound dozens of times the last few years. sometimes they would sit right in the driveway. i think they liked my big orange cat. and that wasn't what i heard this morning.

 

[guywhofishes]

as you can see from my avatar, I am an experienced investigator

 

[Davey Crockett]

I was thinking Fox too. My cat was looking out the window one night and going nuts so I let it out and after a while all hell broke loose and I heard a sound like I had never heard in my life, It sounded like a monster of some sort was killing my cat. As far as I know it was a Fox that had a den with pups under a building in the yard.

 

[3Roosters]

Injured/wounded gray wolf? Wasn't there some chit chat of a wolf taking down a buck just south of you a while back? Unless that was just fake news. Thought i had heard of something along those lines.

 

[scrotcaster]

Mink

 

[Dirty]

Have your dogs been vaccinated for leptovirus if they are tangling with wild critters?

Pretty much every member of the weasel family stinks...skunk, mink, badger, etc.

 

[espringers]

no clue. they get their yearly vax. but, not sure if that is one of them.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Better get to town and get 22 and shotgun shells and get ready to snipe that critter. Then change your name to E-Sniper!

 

[AR-15]

Aim low, they will riding Shetlands

 

[espringers]

Update: vax are up to date. Definitely a damn skunk. Not sure how the mrs. was unsure. Its lingering in the yard in 20 mph winds. Dogs have a mild odor. But, definitely avoided a direct spray. Other than needing to locate and execute, adventure appears over. Good times. Thanks for responses.

 

[shorthairman]

I'd say your are a lucky SOB if your dogs tangled with a skunk....TWICE...and got away without taking a direct hit...one of my dogs got sprayed two months ago and we can still smell it when we give her a bath, or she goes swimming...

Maybe skunks in ND are more tolerant than skunks down here...

 

[riverview]

fisher stink worse than mink maybe because of there size, this spring snow on the ground dogs jumped up and went to the door wife opened the door and smelled skunk later on could even smell it in the house. next morning there were fisher tracks around my house. I don't know if this fisher just killed a skunk or what. I skinned a fisher a few years ago and my hands were musky for a couple days.

 

[espringers]

Ya. I've had a couple of direct sprays with past dogs. Horrible. These dogs are a bit more bark than bite. So, yah... lucky I guess. Sounds like they chased it to the water. So, that might have prevented a good spray. Those fuckers are snipers with their asshole. So, assuming that was the difference maker.

 

[Allen]

Have your dogs been vaccinated for leptovirus if they are tangling with wild critters?

Pretty much every member of the weasel family stinks...skunk, mink, badger, etc.

That would be my take on this as well.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Those damn skunks , About a week ago one morning I set a bag of garbage just inside the walk in door to the garage and opened the overhead door and started a pot of coffee and was going to run the garbage out after the coffee was done. We have a step down to the garage and I was still half sleeping and in my housecoat I looked down on the way out the door and there's a damn skunk in the garbage. I caught myself and jumped back spilled my coffee on it and hid behind the door watching and the dam cat brushed my leg on the way out the door and I jumped again.

They had a stare down in the middle of the garage and Knucklehead put the run on the skunk and the skunk turned around and put the run on Knucklehead and he came running back in the house. I got dressed and looked around the garage and couldn't find the skunk anywhere so thought it had ran outside. A while later knucklehead came in the garage and was looking under the freezer and wouldn't leave so put him back in the house and could hear the skunk under there. There os only like a 2'' gap where the kickplate should be and it squeezed under there.

I collected my thoughts and grabbed a fishing rod and tied on some some smoked turkey in a baggie and set it in front of the freezer and sat in the pickup a ways away watching with my binoculars , His head was bobbing and he was trying to get out but was stuck under there. it took him quite a while to get out and he went straight for the turkey and ran under the welding table with it and was snagged so I had to go in and get it loose and put it back in the middle where I could see it and the second run I started reeling and he lifted his tail every time I drug the baggie, He went for it and grabbed some of the bait and went in the corner and ate it. I was watching him and it took a good 10-15 minutes to eat it he held it in his paws like a coon would .

He finished that peice and went for the bag again and I was quicker this time but every time I pulled it towards me he would lift his tail , Finally I had it outside and kept teasing it closer to me and he lost interest and checked out the raised garden and took off out in the yard. The wind was wrong so I didn't dare shoot him but I followed him to an old brooder house so at least now I know where he resides. No smell in the house but in got my heart pumping when I almost stepped on him. Been baiting him under the yard light but haven't got a shot at him yet. I have a live trap but don't want to take a chance .

 

[Kentucky Windage]

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It’s obviously manbearpig.